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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642059">Dreams of Sleeping Gods</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Two_Cats/pseuds/Team_Two_Cats'>Team_Two_Cats</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Suikovember 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Suikoden Series (Video Games), Suikoden V</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And kinda messed up, Eldritch, Gen, This Got Weird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:15:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,013</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642059</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Two_Cats/pseuds/Team_Two_Cats</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Suikovember 2020 Day 20, prompt: Night Before Final Battle</p><p>On the eve of the final battle against the Godwins, Alhazred spends some time in the dark...preparing.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Suikovember 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019115</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dreams of Sleeping Gods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The castle could be quieter. It’s restless, holding its breath. There is an air of anticipation. Tomorrow they will go out, will fight the Godwins in the final push to the capital. And after… It’s like the castle is holding them all in one final embrace before they go away. A lover’s farewell—soft, but final.</p><p>Alhazred walks through the corridors, and a shadow follows him. Somehow, there is never anyone else in the hall he’s in, as if all comings and goings happen only in his wake, as if people know, in some unspeakable way, to not be out right then. If they had, they’d hear the quiet murmur of his voice. They wouldn’t be able to pick out the words, though. Like his gorgeous, flowing calligraphy, there’s something about it that…slides past understanding. So that if anyone heard him they’d think he was speaking another language. Which is right, in a way. But also very wrong.</p><p>He has no destination that night. It’s just that the energy of the castle is keeping him…agitated. He speaks to quiet what he carries inside, and what he carries in his arms. A book. That’s what people see. Just…a book. Yes, bound in something people don’t like to speak of. Written in words people cannot comprehend. But a book. And books are safe enough, are they not.</p><p>
  <em>What if they only look like books? Humans have only limited perception, after all. It’s possible that this is the only way our brains can make sense of the nature of these items. They look like…books. But they’re actually something much more than that. They might even be alive.</em>
</p><p>The voice echoes through the tome and he pets it, soothing it. Inside, something scratches at the inside of his skin, and he pats his belly, soothing it as well. Books are portals, people know. But books are also metaphysical metaphors as well. They are beings. And some of them, they are even gods. He stops and chuckles. A passer-by, making a late-night trip to a secret lover, might hear it from down the hall and around the corner. And they might shiver, and move all the faster toward the thin promise of warmth and passionate touch.</p><p>
  <em>The true runes, they have a will. They are fighting for a future where they are completely in control. A hollow world where all is still and ordered. I have seen this world, and now you have too. These runes, they are alive. Gods toying with the fates of mortals.</em>
</p><p>The book shines and the hallway darkens in response, as if the rune is eating the light. Devouring it to somehow seem brighter, when really it’s just more intense. Through time and space, the book stretches, yawning in something like needful silence. Alhazred pets it again. Soon. Soon the battlefield will be red with blood. Soon the sounds of screaming will fill every pocket of air. Soon.</p><p>Inside him, something draws a skeletal finger across the inside of his eye, so that if someone was looking just then, they’d see a strange fingerprint instead of an iris. It passes, settling. Alhazred keeps walking until he has stepped out into the blue twilight of the open air. Still no one challenges or stops him. He walks until he stands looking out over the water, where were moon is burying plunging into the still pool of it.</p><p>The movement starts in his stomach and works its way up, ripples like a column of ants playing up his neck to his jaw. He opens his mouth. There’s a snapping sound and slowly, meticulously, he opens. Opens his mouth wider and wider, like he will eat the moon before it escapes beyond the horizons. Like…he lifts the book and puts it into his waiting mouth and—pushes.</p><p>There is a wind that rises up, a howling moan that might just be the voice of the castle, but might also be the book, exclaiming in release as he takes it into himself. He closes his mouth, and there is no trace of the book left. He doesn’t need to swallow, doesn’t need to do anything. He just stands, and feels it fall into the depths of himself.</p><p>His skin bulges, his entire body pushed outward as the latest edition acclimates, finds its space. And then, finally, he shrinks back, his body once more the ready mask he’s worn for so long.</p><p>
  <em>Some say we are all just the dreams of sleeping gods.</em>
</p><p>There are worlds inside him. Universes. Powers and beings that he can’t hope to fully understand. So he doesn’t try. You don’t have to understand a thing to consume it. To be changed by it. His life is spent searching for those special books, those sleeping gods. That must, at all costs, be kept sleeping, lest in their waking fits they destroy everything. Humans. The planet. The universe itself. Something deep within rumbles, and he puts a hand on his stomach and coos, while around him the shadows roil and rear.</p><p>A noise to the side, and Alhazred turns, and whatever shapes the shadows make there is the man in its center, who stands with a bored expression on his face.</p><p>“Oh, hi Alhazred!” Frey says, running past. “Beautiful night, huh?”</p><p>The words that come out first are like the heat from first opening an oven, and Frey shakes his head. The night plays tricks around the lake. Strange lights, and sometimes shadows that seem to twist, to resemble a great dragon, maw gaping. But it’s just moonlight dancing on the water.</p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” he says.</p><p>Alhazred clears his throat. “I said…that it is indeed. The perfect night to stay up late and read.”</p><p>“With a battle tomorrow?”</p><p>“There’s always time for a good book,” Alhazred says.</p><p>Frey shrugs, smiles, nods. Then he moves on, running back toward the castle, full of stars, all of them waiting for the new day. And Alhazred smiles after him, just as eager. It will be a day to remember.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay so you can't just have a character based on Lovecraft and not make him fucked up. The italicized bits are actually a bit from all over. The first is a rough summary of Mubal from Tierkreis talking about the Chronicles, which I thought was interesting. The second is another rough summary of some stuff Luc said in S3. And the final little bit is just a common bit of weird from lots of places, like the sleeping red king from Through the Looking Glass. Anyway, sorry about this.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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